"Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon him while He is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." (Isaiah 55:6-7)

What is the purpose for the Old Testament Law of Moses? Why was
it given if it wasn't to be obeyed to get men to heaven? Brother
Jonathan explains using the scriptures and quotations from great
men of God such as John Wesley, Martin Luther, and Charles
Finney.

Here are the notes for this sermon:

__________________________________________________

The Purpose of the Law

(Romans 3:31)

What does “we establish the law” mean?

“Satan, the god of all dissension, stirreth up daily new sects,
and last of all, which of all other I should never have foreseen or
once suspected, he hath raised up a sect as such as teach…that men
should not be terrified by the Law, but gently exhorted by the
preaching of the grace of Christ.” –Martin Luther

Why don’t we see true heartbroken-for-sin conversions
anymore?

Men don’t see themselves in need of a Saviour, because they
don’t see their sin.

“I’m a pretty decent person.”
“Only the sick will seek for a physician.”

What does scripture tell us the purpose of the Law is?

The purpose for which the Law of Moses was given to man was to
show him that he is a sinner, and guilty before God. (Romans
3:19-20; 7:7, 9-10)

The second purpose of the Law is to drive men to seek for the
Saviour. (Gal.3:24 cf. Romans 5:20)

“The second use [of the Law] is to bring him unto life, unto
Christ that he may live. It is true, in performing both these
offices, it acts the part of a severe schoolmaster. It drives by
force, rather than draws us by love. And yet love is the spring of
all. It is the spirit of love which, by this painful means, tears
away our confidence in the flesh, which leaves us no broken reed
whereon to trust, and so constrains the sinner, stripped of all to
cry out in the bitterness of his soul or groan in the depth of his
heart, “I give up every plea beside, Lord, I am damned; but thou
hast died.”” –John Wesley

“I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does
not preach the Law…Lower the Law and you dim the light by which man
perceives his guilt; this is a very serious loss to the sinner
rather than a gain; for it lessens the likelihood of his conviction
and conversion. I say you have deprived the gospel of its ablest
auxiliary when you have set aside the Law. You have taken from it
the schoolmaster that is to bring men to Christ…They will never
accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy Law.
Therefore the Law serves a most necessary purpose, and it must not
be removed from its place.” –Charles Spurgeon

The Word of God says that men are condemned already (John 3:18),
there is Judgment coming (Heb.9:27), and there is wrath to come
because of it (Revelation): If we don’t tell them they’re
condemned, how will they know? If we don’t tell them of the coming
Judgment, why should they care? And if we don’t warn them of wrath
to come, from what will they flee?

Why don’t we deal with people’s sin directly?

We don’t like the tension it creates. It makes us
uncomfortable.
(2Cor.7-8-10) They need godly sorrowing working repentance to
salvation, and we are not showing them what to sorrow about!

But some say, “No, it’s the goodness of God that leads men to
repentance.” YES! God is good. We are not. So therefore, repent and
be reconciled through the sacrifice he has made to pay for our
transgressions.

Do we have scriptural justification to deal directly with sin,
whether in the body, or when preaching the gospel to the lost?
Absolutely: Jesus called men hypocrites to their faces , John the
Baptist openly rebuked Herod for adultery, Paul rebuked Peter
before the whole congregation, (2Tim.3:16-17), Paul tells Titus,
“rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.”
(Tit.1:13); Eph.5:11; Isa.58:1 “show my people their
transgression”.

Even in the Law it is written, “Thou shalt in any wise rebuke
thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.” (Lev.19:17)

What do the revivalists of time past have to say about the
purpose of the Law?

“It is a great mistake to give a man who has not been convicted
of sin certain passages that were never meant for him. The Law is
what he needs…Do not offer the consolation of the gospel until he
sees and knows he is guilty before God. We must give enough of the
Law to take away all self-righteousness. I pity the man who
preaches only one side of the truth—always the gospel, and never
the Law.” –D.L. Moody

“If I had my way, I would declare a moratorium on public
preaching of “the plan of salvation” in America for one to two
years. Then I would call on everyone who has use of the airwaves
and the pulpits to preach the holiness of God, the righteousness of
God and the Law of God, until sinners would cry out, “What must we
do to be saved?” Then I would take them off to a corner and whisper
the gospel to them. Such drastic action is needed because we have
gospel-hardened a generation of sinners by telling them how to be
saved before they have any understanding why they need to be saved.
Don’t use John 3:16. Why? Because you tell a sinner how to be saved
before he has realized that he needs to be saved. What you have
done is gospel-hardened him.” Paris Reidhead

“Evermore the Law must prepare the way for the gospel. To
overlook this in instructing souls is almost certain to result in
false hope, the introduction of a false standard of Christian
experience, and to fill the Church with false converts…Time will
make this plain.” Charles Finney

What do the scriptures say about being “under the Law”?

Romans 3:19 says the Law is only applicable to them who are
under it.
Romans 6:14 says sin has no dominion over those who are not under
the Law.
Romans 6:15-16 says we should not sin if we are under grace, that
is in Christ Jesus, because if we yield ourselves to obey sin then
we become the servants of sin; and the end result is death. (The
underlying Greek word for “death” here is the same as in Romans
6:23 and Revelation 21:8 showing that it is spiritual death)
Galatians 4:5 says that we must be redeemed from under the Law to
receive the adoption of sons.
Galatians 5:18 says, “But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not
under the Law.”

How do we know that we are not under the Law, but under
grace?

To be under grace is to be in Christ. We only have access to
stand in grace by union with Christ. (Romans 5:2)

How do we know that we are in Christ?

“And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his
commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his
commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso
keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected:
hereby know we that we are in him.” (1 John 2:3-5)

“In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of
the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither
he that loveth not his brother.” (1 John 3:10)

“We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we
love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no
murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” (1 John 3:14-15) cf.
(5:2-3)

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The Remnant Bible Fellowship Podcast is a podcast done for the purpose of edifying, or "building up", the body of Christ. Our desire is to see people soundly converted and continuing in Jesus Christ.
Anything that helps toward this end, that is not contrary to the scriptures, is something that we'll consider doing: sermons, testimonies, lessons, book reviews, and answering questions.